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Premier Clark to announce new bullying policy for BC schools (UPDATE)

Author of the article:

Janet Steffenhagen

Publishing date:

June 13, 2011 • 3 minute read

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PremierChristy Clarkwas to announce a first step “in developing a coordinated and comprehensive anti-bullying strategy” Monday morning, a government release said. I will update this blog as details become available, but the location for her announcement – a Burnaby elementary school – is interesting.

Clark was a high-profile anti-bullying advocate during the years she worked as a CKNW talk-show host and, according to her online profile, brought the anti-bullying “Pink Shirt Campaign” to B.C. A story on the Pink Shirt Day website quotes Clark as saying: “If I become premier, one of the very clear directives I am going give to the education minister is I want you to deal with bullying in schools as a top priority.”

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Last night, I wrote the following post:

Burnaby school trustees are expected to consider revisions to a draft homophobia/heterosexism policy at a meeting Tuesday. (They are expected to vote on the revisions or they could delay the matter until June 28, the last meeting of the year.)

While debate has been raging in that district over this proposed policy, we’ve heard little from other parts of the province, even though this is clearly not just a Burnaby issue.

According to Burnaby officials, 12 of 60 school districts have made policy changes to improve safety for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) students and staff: Southeast Kootenay, Cariboo-Chilcotin, Chilliwack, Vancouver, North Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert, Greater Victoria, Gulf Islands, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Comox Valley and Fort Nelson. Recently, Peace River South won kudos for its new policy, bringing that number to 13.

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These policies vary widely from atwo-paragraph statement in Haida Gwaii to a very detailed policy in Vancouver dealing specifically with harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, and questioning (LGBTQ) students and staff. (The Vancouver policy, by the way, says heterosexism, like homophobia, is “dangerous to individuals and communities” — a definition that provoked anger among some Burnaby parents.)

This raises some questions:

– Why has there been so much push-back in Burnaby and not in these other districts?

– Why is everyone focused on the debate in Burnaby, with no mention at all of the 46 districts that apparently aren’t even discussing this issue?

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– Why are districts developing these policies on their own rather than working together – or in groups – to adopt a model. Burnaby, for example, spent two years developing its policy! Why didn’t it just borrow language from Vancouver or Victoria (since the intent is the same)?

– What’s happening in other districts? According to Burnaby’s list, Vancouver and North Vancouver are the only two Metro districts that have approved such policies. If they do improve safety for LGBTQ students, where are the other districts? Surrey? Coquitlam? West Vancouver? New Westminster? Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows? Delta? Richmond?

Some districts rely on codes of conduct. But according to the BCTF, not all districts have codes of conduct that meet a ministerial order passed in 2007, which said they must include mention of all prohibited grounds of discrimination in the B.C. human rights code. (Find the ministerial order here.)

The BCTF filed a grievance over this issue, but it was rejected. I’m told the union is planning an appeal to the courts.

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